


The False Hero of Flowers

by Rodyle, RodyOneHalf (Rodyle)



Category: Fate/Grand Order, Monster Girl Quest
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2020-10-17 11:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20619941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodyle/pseuds/Rodyle, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodyle/pseuds/RodyOneHalf
Summary: To not know the outcome, to not see the road aheadA mutual journey of incomplete truths





	1. Chapter 1

* * *

"Well now," I muttered, gazing at the newest addition to my eternal abode, "this is a change."

It was undeniable, but it was also impossible. 

The Isle of Avalon is an eternal utopia, the fortress of the faeame at the ends of the Earth. Change was anathema. Even I, who had arrived, and my king, who would arrive, were in fact 'always here.' 

This applied doubly so to my own prison, my Garden. I had stepped through the gate that should have only allowed the innocent through, and became eternally trapped. But I didn't need to step through the gate, because I was already here. The walls that stretched to the infinite, unreachable heavens that Rose to enclose me had always stood tall.

My shadow could still be cast on the history of humans, but I myself will be and had been basking in sunlight since the origin and unto oblivion of all things.

And yet...

Undeniably, this was new. It hadn't existed before. In time, it would cease to exist. A black 'Gate.' A hole in reality. 

I could not, even with my 'Eyes,' discern that which lay beyond it... but I could tell though the darkness was absolute, it contained nothing foul or unpleasant.

Yes... twas like the warm darkness of a dreamless sleep. A most curious phenomenon. But what to do it?

Ah, why not, tis not in my nature to resist an impulse!

And so I, the great Magus of Flowers, shoved my hand into the portal... 

And though I should never have escaped this Garden, though I could only cast my shadow upon the world, even if the world called me to serve as Grand... I was sucked bodily into the portal, and saw no more for quite some time.

\---

It is difficult to be aware of things as a fetus. One has few senses to be aware of things with, after all, even if one's soul is inhuman and eternal. But aware I became, after some time. Aware of both my host's undeveloped form and of the warmth of the womb that surrounded it.

A novel experience. Possibly unique? Hm, surely there must be a Heroic Spirit that was aware from the moment of their own conception. 

In any case, little enough changed whilst the body gestated, beyond the usual development of limbs and so forth. I was, however, able to determine that the woman I'd found myself within at least could not have created the portal that had grafted me to her child. Connected to her as I was, it was trivial to determine both that her nature was that of a Light utterly incompatible with the Darkness of that gate, and that she was not human.

What sort of inhuman being I was growing inside I had yet to determine, and my birth did not grant any revelation regarding the matter. The woman, a reasonably curvy blonde, stubbornly retained her human form despite the pain.

Note to self, if I should write this down, recommend against full adult cognizance during birth. It's icky.

In any case, it seems, judging by the discussion between the midwife, my host's mother, and the apparently father, a young human with grayish purple hair, that this infant is to be called Luka.

Well, no reason to deny it, I'M to be called Luka. Unfortunately for the poor lad whose intended body I'm inhabiting, the nascent soul couldn't survive cohabitation with my own and was immediately absorbed. A tragedy from an objective standpoint but I've never been excellent at such exercises of sympathy, and it IS more convenient to not have to share.

In any case, the female creature and her partner continued to speak to one another. Cooing over my good looks, that sort of parental affection, interspersed with praising one another for successfully performing basic biological functions.

Well, again, I do understand their perspective, but having it MYSELF has always been somewhat tricky. Ah, but that foster daughter of mine was quite fun in the end, no matter how much trouble I caused her, so I suppose I can grasp it a bit. 

What I can't grasp is the future, which is new and quite fascinating. Perhaps my clairvoyance will return in time, as while I can feel my power thrumming within I certainly can't channel it.

Well in the meantime, it seems owe these two (Marcellus and Lucifina, apparently), a son, having accidentally taken theirs.

Well, I survived being a child before, even if it was a somewhat tedious experience. What's another 18 or 19 years? It's not like I'm going anywhere.

\---

Surprisingly, my portal-cum-reincarnation-device seems to have deposited me into another world axis entirely. A feat of outright True Magic. Of course it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the actual Second or its user. I know perfectly well what Kaleidoscope looks like in action, and gooey portals of darkness aren't involved. So, no leads on that.

Thanks to my mother's literacy lessons and the local temple I do actually know things about this world now at least. 

First off, I've learned that there isn't very much of it, or at least those around me haven't discovered much, which seems more likely. The world as these people are aware consists of what they call three continents and what I call one continent and two large islands. I myself am on one of the latter, the southern island of Ilias.

There's a bit of a naming scheme there, actually. On Ilias, the largest city is Iliasport in the north. My mother and I live in Ilias village in the south. Ilias village is built around the local temple, Ilias Shrine, dedicated to worship of a monotheistic goddess, Ilias.

Points for consistency, but a bit unimaginative. 

Ilias...ism? Iliasity? It doesn't have a name that I've seen. Maybe, considering I also haven't heard of any competition in the theology department, they just don't think it needs one. Iliasity for now. Anyway Iliasity seems to center on opposition to a group of races, reportedly all-female, collectively referred to as simply monsters. 

Particular emphasis is given to not having sex with these creatures, which makes me rather question why I live by its main center of worship alone with my non-human mother (Marcellus died last year. Apparently he was a terrorist of some sort? I was unable to get much of the story.). Maybe whatever Lucifina is (no leads on that either, but I'm guessing the ring with obvious sealing magic she always wears is relevant) doesn't count. Or she's just not worried about being found out. Well the locals hate us anyway for not being locals so, moot point. 

Actually, our position is somewhat worse than just being outsiders of late. Whilst lusty all-female races bode well for the future, when I have a body that isn't five years old, at the present my incubus heritage (which I have apparently my reincarnation) is rather an issue. My previous childhood's habit of causing flowers to sprout where I walk and my white hair's beauteous rainbow shimmer when in sunlight have both manifested in this one as well. These are even less appreciated here in Ilias Village than they were in Caerfyrddin. 

Nobody has attempted to water any foundations with my blood yet, but I have taken a few rocks to the face, and I'm not quite yet to the point where I could fight back or make the offenders think a snake hole is a willing woman or something. 

This whole experience has been quite interesting and I would rather not have it end prematurely only to either wake up back in the Garden or not wake up at all. I have attempted to beseech my mother to let us move with the appropriate grace (which, being five, mostly involve wailing with snot dribbling down my face), but apparently we lack the means for it. 

Instead, in an annoyingly familiar occurrence, I've been given a cloak to hide my hair outside, and told in a gentle, motherly voice that I need to learn to focus and control the flowers. 

A distinctly unhelpful suggestion, since I know perfectly well how to control them, I simply lack the physical hardiness to do so.

I suppose I'm going to just endure.

\---

It seems I'm to be an orphan at ten years. Unfortunate. 

My previous mother, Adahn, died of old age as Queen of Wales. It seems Lucifina was to pass of plague. I myself am immune, so rather than fruitlessly beg the villagers for poultices and prayer I've been trying to treat her myself.

Sadly, healing is not my specialty, and I still don't know what my mother actually is, so I have to simply act like she's a human when surreptitiously using the magic.

Or at least, that was the plan. 

Lucifina grabbed my wrist gently as I reached towards her forehead, prana channeled in my palm. She locked eyes with me and shook her head, "My sweet boy... I'm afraid there's nothing you can do for this body."

Hmm? She noticed I was using magic, it seems. Well, she's not human and I used to make plants grow by walking, so I suppose that's not really a surprise. Still... "Am I to simply accept it mother? It's natural to fight it if I can." And yet like many things natural for humans, filial affection was more a learned behavior for incubus spawn.

But I had learned it.

My mother took a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. "Natural... perhaps. But you can't, my sweet Luka. Nor could you, even if you were stronger. This is the price I'm paying, for having locked my true self away, to live with your father, and with you."

An admission of her nature was unprecedented. "Your true self, mother?" I said, feigning ignorance.

"Hn," she reached down and removed the ring on her finger, "you'll learn one day. Until then..." she blindly held out the ring, waiting for me to take it, which I did. "Please," she pleaded, "wear this."

Not a chance. "I will, mother."

She smiled, and sagged deeper into the bed. "Good... good... Luka, what is your real name?"

That... "...What do you mean mother?"

"Huhu... I'm more than experienced with souls you know? It's hard not to notice when a big one suddenly appears inside me. Well, to be honest, at first I thought I was being attacked... But I never dealt any malice from you. Only curiosity and kindness. You just ended up in me by accident right?" 

This was a rather dramatic thing to reveal at the end. "...just so mother. ...forgive me for taking your son from you."

She giggled at that, an action that hurt both of us. Then she reached out, after a bit of blind grasping, found my head, rubbing it softly. " You're my son, silly child. You didn't take anything. But as I asked: before I was your mother, do you remember your name?"

"...men and women, high and low, knew me as Merlin, Magus of Flowers. But the name of my boyhood, granted to me by my first mother, was 'Emrys.'"

"Emrys? Ah... that's much prettier... but I admit... I'd rather you... keep..."

I accepted her unfinished request. It was as Luka that I buried her later. 

\---

It took a few more years, but at sixteen I finally have a body that can full strength. No more staying cooped up in a village, making my way selling magically grown vegetables and flowers!

Well, I say that as if it's been a crushing burden, but life in Ilias village had gotten more tolerable after that second plague nearly wiped out all the old guard and the town was overrun by new blood. The new villagers didn't see the weird demon child of the outsiders, just an orphan who happened to be a mage, an unusual but not unheard of sight in this world. Of course, mages were apparently all part monster (which, well, wasn't INaccurate in my case) so I still got sideeyes, but it'd become a decent life.

Still, I wasn't made to set down roots... well, not my roots anyway. And somewhat auspiciously, all the idiots were flocking to the temple today to get their anti-monster blessings today.

Since abstinence was absolutely not on my agenda, I'd have no need of that. 

With my magic I didn't really need to pack much for travel... actually travel itself was more an indulgence than anything, but why not indulge?

I had no pressing business. 


	2. Chapter 2

Ah.

No two ways about it, I messed up.

I thought I could take that smug goddess down while she was manifested for her stupid birthday celebration, but I'm no Dark One, apparently.

Still, I would have thought a goddess would fight with more... divine type stuff. Light of Judgement, Arrows From Heaven, that kind of thing.

I really wasn't ready for her to just slug me and send me flying.

That left hook knocked me out, you wretched goddess...

Hang on, it _did_ knock me out. How am I thinking about it? Am I awake? Where am I?

"Good Morning! Good Morning! This is the MagiMari Wakeup Serivice, Teehee!" said the most ominously obnoxious voice I've heard in my life. I "looked" around for the source but... I don't have a body. There's no space to look around either. "MagiMari needs you to stretch those limps! Like, Get Limber, Teehee!"

Ah, right, I really want to hit whoever's doing that. Fists, yeah, and my tail too. That's right, I'm the Queen of Echidnas, the Monster Lord!

"That's right, come, remember the form that you had. And where are you? Er, Teehee!" 

I'm... it's dark. I'm nowhere... no... the castle? No, it's not even dark... I'm...

\---

I bolt upright, a decision I immediately regret. Stupid goddess bruise, going to be nursing that for days...

"Why hello there!" said an oddly familiar voice. Searching for the source revealed a human standing over me... although he was the weirdest human I've ever seen. The robe and staff wasn't that out there, a little flashy but still standard human mage fare... but the white and pink hair was definitely odd. Well it's not like I'd seen tons of humans, but I was pretty sure that wasn't normal. 

Actually speaking of not normal... "Oi," I said, drawing myself up properly, standing on my coils, "human, shouldn't you be running right about now?"

That just got a smile in return... a distinctly patronizing one. "Now why would I do that? You're quite the fascinating lady. Also, while clearly quite hardy, you DID still just plummet from the sky and make this rather impressive crater. I'd be remiss not to see if you were okay, frankly."

This was too weird. Worship I was used to from humans, I'd been to Yamantai more than I'd cared to with Tamamao and her stupid kitsunes. Fear was more expected, though I'd not been in those sorts of human areas. 

Well whatever, monsters had weirdos too. "Well, I'm fine, as you can see. So beat it."

"Right here? I'm sorry, but the mood just isn't right, you know?"

_...Oh I'm not taking this today. _I tried to give him a good smack with my tail, enough to knock him out... aaaand he dodged. 

"Hm, faster than I'd expected," he said, casually righting himself after the dodge. "But not quite fast enough."

I narrowed my eyes involuntarily... then opened them again, to give him the flash, send him off out of my hair... "Shit!" I grabbed my head, a splitting headache overtaking me.

"Oh, you've some sort of mystic eyes too... I suppose given my experience I should expect that. Still, trying to inflict a glamour on me? Not happening I'm afraid. Would you like to try something else?"

"You..." I growled, considering briefly just incinerating him, but thinking better of it in the end, "...what do you WANT, human?"

He had the gall to look offended, "Me? I simply wanted to see if you were okay. Beautiful damsel, nasty fall, perfectly chance to be all Hero-y, you understand?"

_What is WITH this guy_? "Well I'm fine, as you can see. Now, GO!"

"Why, but we've barely begun to get to know one another!" 

_Maybe I really should just kill him_. "Okay, fine, then I'll leave." I refused to waste another second in this middle of the nowhere forest with this annoyance. If I did, I'd probably end up roasting the whole thing, and upsetting my cute subordinates that lived here. 

"Oh must you?" the mage said, trailing after me after I started to slither off. "I was about to embark on a journey myself, and isn't travel always better with company?"

I whirled on him, "Listen. To. Me. I've had a bad day, in case you hadn't noticed. I went on an unwanted flight thanks to... urgh, and then some human turned my glamour back on me... wait..." I really hadn't been thinking straight. Probably the head trauma. "How DID you turn my glamour back on me?" Curiosity was overcoming anger now, and I settled back into my coils. "What monster are you descended from?"

The mage smiled, "Hmm, well, that's an awfully personal question, don't you think? We don't even know one another's name."

Everything about this man screamed 'suspicious' and 'unreliable,' but I couldn't let the Monster Lord getting out-magicked by a human lie... even if I wasn't in top shape at the moment. "...Call me Alice, then."

The smile held... it seemed somewhat fake, to me. Maybe he actually knew who I was? "Lovely name. As for me, my dear departed mother went with 'Luka.'"

"Fascinating," I waved the name off, "Now," I leaned in, "what kind of monster are you descended from?"

The same smile. "An incubus."

What. "...There's no such monster. You mean a succubus?"

"Oh they're quite real, I assure you... well, for a given definition of real."

"That makes no sense! And there's no such thing as a monster I don't know about!"

Now the mage actually had the stones to turn and start leaving himself. He waved as he left, "Well clearly not, if you don't know of incubii. But if you want to, you can always come along!"

As he disappeared into the trees, I crossed my arms, "...Crazy jackass." 

_Hope I don't run into him agai- HEY I NEVER GOT HOW HE TURNED AROUND MY GLAMOUR!_


	3. Chapter 3

Ah, my first encounter with a monster was most amusing! I'd intended to seek one out as soon as possible, but I never expected one to fall (literally) into my lap like that! She was serpentine in nature, with the top half being that of a woman. Mmm, no stone eyes thankfully, but she did try to hypnotize me. That sort of thing is my specialty though, so she ended up commanding herself to be hypnotized in a loop and got quite the headache!

She showed no sign of knowing about incubi, which fits with the scriptural assertions that monsters are all female (not that calling true incubi 'male' is strictly accurate, but oh well). 

Most interestingly, while she was certainly not on the level of that Composite Goddess she reminds me of, she was clearly quite powerful, so I do wonder what she was doing making craters in the woods. MagiMari had to coax her back awake! Hm... but how will space-time's number one net idol monetize herself in such a setting!? 

Well perhaps that's not the most important issue.

At any rate, my first encounter with a monster went as such. I do hope that young lady decides to follow, I am really quite curious about her, especially with her claiming there's no monsters she doesn't know. 

But enough about that.

"Hm, no organs, no obvious 'core' the structure is built around. Perhaps the individual cells work as a gestalt colony, rather than taking orders from a central thought processing unit?"

"Oi."

"Or maybe I'm looking at this from a too modern perspective. Supposedly there's a goddess around giving blessings, this place could be in its own equivalent of the Age... certainly there's plenty around to qualify as Phantasmal. In which case... a soul that exists in the ether, manipulating the material substance?"

"OI!"

"No, no, that would just be an elemental. Mmph, I'm really not meant for this sort of detail work... Morgan would probably be better suited."

"THAT'S IT!" yelled Lime, the slime girl, 'standing' herself up again. "You're a big jerk, you know that!"

I put on my well practiced smile, "So I have been told, madam. But, specifically, may I ask what I've done in this instance?"

"You said you wanted to have fun, but all you've been doing is standing there, muttering about what I'm made of while I do the hard work! And you're not even responding! There's no romance, there's no fun, there's no food, there's... UGH!" she swung and appendage shaped like an arm at my face, resulting in the wettest slap ever, then turned and oozed off in a huff. 

"Hmm, interesting," I said as I fixed my robes, "no leavings! I'll go with gestalt colony for now!"

My second encounter with a monster wasn't quite as interesting, but was still rather fun!


End file.
